Amazon Has Returned “A Rainy Day In New York” To Woody Allen

It’s a good thing Amazon is in the delivery business, because they recently had a big delivery on their hands. According to Variety, Woody Allen has found himself with his unreleased film A Rainy Day in New York back in his possession. And for the first time in history, we’ve got an Amazon package that not one person would want to steal off his doorstep.

A little less than a year ago, it was revealed that Amazon Studios was dragging their feet on committing to a release date for A Rainy Day in New York. The hesitation came after several of the film’s stars came out and said they would be donating their salaries from the film and wouldn’t choose to work with Woody in the future. It was the kind of mess anyone would want to walk away from. Amazon dropped $25 million on the film, but since Amazon’s worth is lingering somewhere around the TOO FUCKING MUCH mark, they don’t care about losing the pocket change they invested. Variety says Woody is now free to release the film through anyone he so chooses, just not Amazon.com. Congrats, Crisis in Six Scenes, you’re still the worst-reviewed Woody/Amazon project on Rotten Tomatoes.

Woody dropped the first trailer for A Rainy Day in New York (on his Facebook page). At the end, it simply says “Coming Soon.” What he should have specified was: “Coming Soon…depending on where you live.” Variety points out it has secured distribution rights in France (coming September 18), Italy (October 3), and Germany (sometime this fall). Europe clearly still has love for Woody – he’s currently filming a movie in Spain. But as far as America goes, it’s crickets. ARDINY reportedly screened for one American indie distributor, but Variety’s source says it was really more of a formality and less because they were interested in the film.

Variety’s source also said that Amazon’s return has effectively killed any possible publicity for the film. And that’s if Woody was even able to get anyone from the cast to go on The Tonight Show to talk about it. The source adds: “Talent wants to distance themselves as far as possible from this. None of them are likely to promote it.”

Variety isn’t sure if any American distributor will pick up the film because of the bad press including Woody’s current legal fight with Amazon. Maybe Woody could trick The Weather Channel into buying it by selling it as a precipitation piece. Because the current pitch can’t be doing him any favors. “So we start with an old creepy filmmaker who takes interest in this young girl. Hello? Hello?”

Pic: Wenn.com